Chapter 44 The Voyeur
❀ Maeve ❀
“Now, if you’d just listen…” My voice wavered.
How long had he known? From the very moment he hugged me at the stream on the surface?
Stupid. Stupid.
Desperate to reach him under that infuriated gaze, I tugged my arms, aiming to cup his face. He held them tight.
“I’m listening. And you better make it damn good this time.”
He felt hot between my thighs, the firm muscles of his sides keeping my legs apart.
I swallowed down the arousal building in the face of danger.
Come clean. Or as clean as possible.
“H-he keeps tabs on me. I did it to protect you!”
“Did you now?” He grated.
Before I could utter another word, he yanked me into the pool, his arms my only buoy in the deep water.
I shivered as he kicked us toward an even deeper end. “Don’t let go, Bastian. C-can’t swim…”
“Then speak. Drowning you is looking fucking attractive right now.”
“You wouldn’t!” I shrieked, clawing his forearms to get higher.
The water seemed to slightly suck at my feet, the pressure horrifying to imagine if I somehow lost the safety of this sturdy, unaffected male.
My nipples dragged across his chest in the process, his jutting shaft sandwiched between us. His glower morphed to a tortured scowl just as he held back a moan.
Taking advantage of the situation, I wrapped my arms around his neck, holding on tightly even as he tried to pry me off.
“If you’d just stop being stubborn for a minute and listen.” Panting, I pressed my front to his as we bobbed in the water. “Nikolai’s on the hunt for graves as well… I could get you information...”
“Like hell you are. You will tell me where to find the leech, and now Maeve. I won’t ask you twice!”
“I don’t know where he is!” But I could summon him.
Not like I’d be telling the sexy, murderous Lycan anything about that.
With a flare of hope, I realized if bastian wanted to get me off him, he would. He wasn’t using his claws, or his strength. It resulted in a frantic sort of friction between us, heating my skin, quickening my breath.
I’d latch myself to him by my fangs before I ever let him submerge me again.
Suddenly, he stopped gripping my arms. His palms seized my ass and held me to him, claws digging deep enough to make me wince.
“You’re protecting the leech.” I felt him grind his jaw, big body quivering with fury. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t reject you right now.”
I whimpered in a surge of frustration.
“Because I need your help, Bastian. I need you. I’m just as confused and scared.” I rubbed my face in his neck, holding onto him like the literal lifeline he was. “But I do have a connection with the vampire.” I whispered.
His chest rumbled with a menacing growl. “What connection?”
I debated telling him about my being Nikolai’s bride, but it didn’t seem like the right time. He could only control his fury for so long.
“He… marked me. Not just with fangs, but with blood.”
Risking a little distance between us, I leaned back to allow him to see my chest. The weight of his carnal gaze told me he was looking past the gem to my boobs.
A heady thrill rushed over me, but still I managed to say, “The gem in my chest… he put it there. When it burns, I’m to know how badly he wants to end you.”
Not a lie, not the truth.
His mouth tightened as he finally gazed at the gem. “It glows right now.”
“W-what?”
I looked down. It really was glowing. Its crimson sheen whirled hypnotically like a tiny drop of supercharged blood.
But it wasn’t giving off heat like the previous times, or was I getting used to it?
“Getting it off.” He lodged a claw against the gem.
I shrieked, “Ah! That hurt! It won’t come off.”
His eyes narrowed into slits. “I vow to you, kitten. I will find and end the bastard.”
Nodding eagerly, I leaned back into him with his hands around me, my chest heaving at the close save.
“He hurt you, hounds you, courting my wrath with every vile pulse sent through that bloodgem.” His breath fanned hotly over my ear. “I’ll give you his head.”
Sickened at the thought of Nikolai coming to harm, and guilty about lying to Bastian, I covered Bastian’s lips with mine. The kiss shut him up, and he groaned into my mouth.
My legs wrapped around his lean hips instinctively, my spine tingling at his probing erection.
He wanted me. Craved me. And all I had to do was somehow manage an affair with his nemesis.
“You stoke a fire in my long grim soul, kitten.” He murmured though pants, trailing a wet, hot tongue down my neck. “Burn me, raze me…”
My back arched at the sensation of his palm firmly cupping my sex. “Ohhh… yess…”
He slid a thick finger through my slickened folds and his mouth dropped open in wonder.
Making that finger curl deliciously, he marveled. “So wet for me.”
My core tightened hungrily, greedy for that fullness he could provide. I rolled my hips to ride his finger, keening into his ear.
“You want more.”
“Yess... please.”
Drops ran down my skin and between us, sweat mixed with the fog of the hot pool.
I’d locked my eyes on his flexing neck, when he suddenly replaced his finger with his cock.
He slid in like a hot knife through butter, muscles bunching with tension.
He pulsed inside me. “ Baby,” his voice wavered, “I’m going to go a bit rough on you, alright. Forgive me.”
“Take me!” I keened.
My depths gave a throbbing squeeze as if to suck him in, and my wolf purred.
Claws holding me tight, he fucked me.
My breath escaped me in a hiss. Pleasure wracked my consciousness like a hurricane.
White spots flickered through my vision, my throat burning with moans of abandon, and the cavern echoed it back.
“Don’t stop, don’t… Uhnn…”
Just before ecstasy ripped a scream from my lungs, I inhaled a deep breath thick with the scent of eucalyptus and blood.
My eyes snapped open.
Through the fog of the pool and the haze of lust, a tall, dark figure stood against a pillar.
Watching us.
My eyes widened.
Bastian pistoned into me, going deeper, harder.
A fist gripped my hair, snatching my head back until I lost sight of the voyeur.
“You’re mine alone!” Bastian snarled, coaxing an answering moan from me. “Say it!”
“Yours… alone…!”
I writhed until my scalp burned, trying to get another look in that corner. It was without a doubt, Nikolai. Was he only watching or had he come with intent to kill?
My claws shot longer at the thought. Let him dare.
Emotion engulfed me, blinding rapture about to consume me.
Bastian rolled his hips in a way that stroked my thrumming bud.
“Aaaah! Yesss… going to…”
Closer… closer… need.
Then it crashed over me, my climax hitting me in waves so powerful my back bowed. Fiery and wet, I screamed, grinding the front of my body against his.
“Kitten, I’m going to come in you, come so hard.”
Over and over, my sex clutched the girth of his thick shaft, demanding what it had to give. Ravenous for it.
His muscles tensed, rippling with raw power. Hips stuttering, he gripped me tighter just as his cock pulsed inside me. With a full-throated roar, he gave… and gave…
Ropes of hot seed searing me, I rolled my head in the direction of our secret observer—
But he’d vanished.